“In his diary, I loved the way Eno described Japanese painters who took all day to prepare, grind ink, and select brushes to be ready for one stroke.”
Known to the masses as Concrete Blonde’s singer/songwriter/bassist, Johnette’s moment has arrived. Though she has participated in highly acclaimed side-projects (Pretty & Twisted, Vowel Movement, The Heads), composed for indie films Wicker Park, Dead Silence, and Underworld, and dabbled in electronic music (Sketchbook and Sketchbook 2), Ms. Napolitano makes her long awaited solo debut with a kaleidoscopic collection entitled Scarred.
“Before Concrete Blonde I was a ten year old kid playing guitar on my bed. Call it a midlife or whatever but I need to get back to her and to really be that person again.”
Melding folk, techno, garage rock, and punk, Scarred also emerges as a showcase for the talents of Napolitano’s collaborators Will Crewdson and Sultan Ahmed of Catfish Star, whom she met in London fifteen years ago. Recalls Johnette, “Will recognized me in a record store. We stayed in touch on and off over the years. He sent me tracks and I just fell in love with them. The songs just wrote themselves.” Napolitano composed “Save Me” during the horror that was Hurricane Katrina. “I couldn't sleep for a week and just wrote to Will's tracks. Later we went into a Hollywood studio and the first vocal I laid down was ‘Like A Wave.’ I knew in a minute that it was special, and so did everyone there.”
Also on board was ex-Blonde guitarist Jim Mankey who served as engineer and guiding light. “Jim has a lot of respect for Will's playing and a sensibility for guitars and Will has tremendous respect for Jim as well, so the back and forth between them was great.”
Despite the fact that Scarred was recorded in different studios over an extended period of time, Mankey’s telekinetic knob-twiddling and Napolitano’s penchant for working quickly made for a cohesive song-cycle. “After every mix Jim would comment about a lyric he liked, or a vocal he liked, and that made me feel good. We kept a few of the rough board mixes. I'm a big believer in walking out of the studio with something you can live with the rest of your life.”
Two pleasant surprises include two covers: Coldplay’s “The Scientist” and Velvet Underground’s “All Tomorrow’s Parties.”
“Danny Lohner and I worked on the Underworld soundtrack. He received the call for us to cover 'The Scientist' for Wicker Park. We weren't all that enthusiastic about it because we're both writers and we would rather have written something, but of course we did it. I drove around in my truck listening to the song for a couple days since I'm a bit of a method actor when it comes to delivering a vocal. I was damn depressed for days!”
“'Tomorrow's Parties' was Will's idea. I'd worked on a song for an Australian film (Candy) which had a Nico temp track they couldn't clear, so they called me to replace it, which I did ('Wedding Theme'). I'm always online with Will and had been telling him about it and he came up with the Velvet’s song. Even my diehard Nico loving friends love it.”
--Tom Semioli
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JOHNETTE NAPOLITANO's SCARRED is released May 29, 2007 on Hybrid Records.
http://www.johnettenapolitano.com
http://www.myspace.com/johnettenapolitano
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